Is sodium carbonate a direct replacement for sodium bicarbonate?

[nornicle]

In the original recipe it says 594 grams of sodium bicarbonate per gallon, if I have soda ash already do I just dissolve 594 gram so sodium carbonate?

sorry if this seems like a really basic question but the improved two part talks about baking bicarbonate but not just starting with sodium carbonate.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

In the original recipe it says 594 grams of sodium bicarbonate per gallon, if I have soda ash already do I just dissolve 594 gram so sodium carbonate?

sorry if this seems like a really basic question but the improved two part talks about baking bicarbonate but not just starting with sodium carbonate.

No.

Just some background on why the article uses bakign soda...

My article on baking the baking soda chose that method because high quality sodium carbonate was not readily available at the time. Baking soda is good grade. Washing soda is no particular grade. Hence the assurance of purity of using baked or unbaked baking soda.

Since that publication, some suppliers have come out with high quality sodium carbonate. But it still may be much cheaper to bake your own.

In terms of alkalinity, 594 grams of sodium bicarbonate is equal to 375 grams of sodium carbonate. if you fully baked 594 grams of sodium bicarbonate, that is what you would get as you drive off CO2 and water.

2NaHCO3 --> Na2CO3 + CO2 + H2O

 

[nornicle]

many thanks Randy this was very useful, and not something easily found in the net (perhaps people are quicker at arithmetic than me but trying to reduce your recipe into a simple calculator for smaller or larger quantities was not straight forward.. and there is no recipe making calculator i could easily find only dosing calculators)